The Prestige (Home Edition)

I’m doing some work when Aaron walks up and says “Daddy, do the magic with my ear.”

I’m all “What? Your ear?”

“Yeah. You know, I can’t find something and you make it come out of my ear. I can’t find Jango Fett.”

Oh, crap.

See, the ear trick is something I do often. One of the boys will be looking for something, and usually it’s not far away and I find it. So I palm it and then do the magic ear trick, and the boys love it. But this time I have absolutely no idea where the toy is. I look everywhere. We all do. No luck.

“Sorry buddy,” I say, walking back to the table, “I guess the magic ear trick isn’t working today.”

Just as the words are coming out of my mouth, I look down and see little Jango Fett in a box on one of the kids’ desks. Aha! I reach in and palm the action figure. I’m about to walk over to Aaron to do the trick when Al stops me in my tracks.

“The magic ear trick isn’t working because it’s fake.”

“What? No it’s not.”

“It’s totally fake!”

“It’s not fake! You know, if I concentrate hard enough, I can probably do it.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, really! But it’s hard. It takes a lot out of me.”

“Yeah, well do it then!”

“Fine.”

I jam my eyes shut, deep lines appearing on my brow. I clench my teeth. My head shakes a little. I make a low growling sound. I reach my left hand towards Al’s head. As he’s looking at it, I bring my right hand up to his ear, and BOOM! I produce the Jango Fett action figure and hold it up in front of Al’s face.

Both boys gape in pure awe. It’s such a beautiful sight. Al holds the action figure up and laughs the cutest laugh. Aaron laughs. I laugh. Man do we ever laugh. The magic ear trick lives on!